The U.S. Department of Agriculture will begin mailing ballots this week for the Farm Service Agency county and urban county committee elections to all eligible agricultural producers and private landowners across the country.

Elections are occurring in certain Local Administrative Areas for these committee members who make important decisions about how federal farm programs are administered locally. Producers and landowners must return ballots to their local FSA county office or have their ballots postmarked by Dec. 4 for those ballots to be counted.

The Local Administrative Area 2 seat is up for election in Jackson County this year.

Lou Ann Hoevener of Hamilton Township and Joe Schepman of Redding Township are the nominees for Area 2, which includes Hamilton, Jackson, Redding and Vernon townships.

Hoevener and her husband, Danny Hoevener, run a row crop operation focusing on corn and soybeans and also have a cattle farming operation. Schepman and his wife, Rita Schepman, run an operation focusing primarily on row crop production of corn, soybeans and wheat.

For information, contact the Jackson County FSA service center at 1350 Woodside Drive in Brownstown. The number is 812-358-2367.

“County committees provide an opportunity for producers to play a meaningful role in delivering farm programs. In order for county committees to be effective, they must truly represent all who are producing,” FSA Administrator Zach Ducheneaux said. “Voting in these elections is your opportunity to help ensure our county committees reflect the diversity of the communities they serve. If you receive a ballot in the mail, I hope you’ll take a few minutes to cast your vote, drop it in the mail or return it to your local office. Your voice and vote matter.”

Producers must participate or cooperate in an FSA program to be eligible to vote in the county committee election. A cooperating producer is someone who has provided information about their farming or ranching operation to FSA, even if they have not applied or received program benefits.

Additionally, producers who are not of legal voting age but supervise and conduct farming operations for an entire farm are eligible to vote in these elections.

Each committee has from three to 11 elected members who serve three-year terms, and at least one seat representing a Local Administrative Area is up for election each year.

Committee members help ensure inclusive representation on committees and equitable administration of FSA farm programs in their jurisdiction. Based on stakeholder feedback, over the past year, FSA has worked to reimagine county committees to be more diverse and more representative of the communities they serve.

Some efforts include the secretarial appointment of 93 minority members to committees lacking adequate representation and the digitization of maps for producers to easily identify their Local Administrative Area. This tool can be found online at fsa.usda.gov/elections.

Newly elected committee members will take office Jan. 1. Producers can find out if their Local Administrative Area is up for election and if they are eligible to vote by contacting their local FSA county office. Eligible voters who do not receive a ballot in the mail can request one from their local FSA county office.

To learn more about FSA programs, producers can contact their local USDA Service Center or their Urban Service Center. Producers also can prepare maps for acreage reporting, manage farm loans and view other farm records data and customer information by logging into their farmers.gov account. Producers who don’t have an account can sign up on that website.